“Occupy Patriarchy!” Feminism in and Against Occupy Camps in Scotland

Inspiring thousands of citizens to gather in streets and parks with its slogan ‘We are the 99%’, the Occupy movement was widely presented by supporters as a unifying popular force against an austerity politics that benefitted only a few. However, Occupy was also critiqued for its internal exclusions and marginalizations, including by feminists angry at the privileging of white, male, middle-class voices and at incidences of harassment and sexual violence within camps. While some feminist activists and commentators worked within the camps to improve safety and participation for all, others cast doubt on Occupy as an inclusive force and called for camps to close. In this way, the Occupy camps could be seen as the latest exemplar of the longstanding ‘unhappy marriage’ between feminism and the left, to use the term popularized by Heidi Hartmann in the 1970s. This paper seeks both to unpack the details of this troubled relationship and to offer an alternative to its heteronormative and simplistic framing as a failed marriage. It will do so by offering a detailed case study of feminist identities, aspirations and tactics in Occupy camps in Scotland, specifically in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Drawing on interviews with camp participants, it will seek to show the complexity of feminist engagements and resistances, as well as the limitations of Occupy discourses and practices. In this way, the paper hopes to demonstrate how context-specific study undercuts polarized and stereotyped representations of both Occupy and feminism, by revealing both to be sites of struggle and contestation.